Read & Respond week 6: Mobility

The concept of Mobile First is informing considerable mass media practice. One of the up-and-coming areas in mobility is wearable technology, and its poster child was once Google’s Glass.

Do you find this fascinating, or do you want to slap the guy? The company pulled the plug on Glass in early 2015, but wearable technology is not going anywhere (get a load of the hedgehog-like iGel). Consider these perspectives:

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18 Responses to Read & Respond week 6: Mobility

Wearable technology is a trend that is undoubtedly here to stay, but I think it is going to take time for more people to catch onto it and adapt it into their daily lives. The world has gone mobile, whether we like it or not. We have come so far already in terms of technology. As Briggs mentioned, long gone are the days of sending out an entire crew to do a live shot. Today, this can be accomplished by one reporter with a smartphone and a backpack.

I think wearable technology has already caught on with the use of bluetooths and go-pro cameras. These types of gadgets and gear are making it easier for journalists to cover stories and events. As for Google Glass, I think it failed because there were a lot of kinks to be worked out with it (as described in seven takeaway points on Glass.) Too many people didn’t understand it and some just plain thought that it looked ridiculous to wear. Although, I really enjoyed the article in Vogue and the futuristic looking photos!

The last video perfectly describes how the majority of people felt toward Google Glass. However, I can see the advantages that Google was trying to promote, yet they failed to appeal the product to consumers.

Briggs states, “The audience is going mobile, so journalism should too.” I think this statement proves that great storytelling and reporting are still essential, but technology is complimenting that process. Just a few years ago, using your cellphone in a courtroom was unheard of. Today, most of us learn about news from reporters live-tweeting on location.

Overall, wearable technology is bound to become more and more prevalent in our lives, especially in this industry. The big question is-how long will it take to catch on? I hope to do a future blog post on how citizen journalists are incorporating more wearable technology and mobile platforms into their reporting.

The world is going mobile. Briggs cited research that found the average age of a child when they first get a cell phone is 11.6! It is unavoidable. Because of this growth in technology innovation, journalism has shifted from traditional reporting. Mobile journalism is becoming the new way of reporting.

John Markoff said “The cell phone is the world’s most ubiquitous computer.” It is amazing how far the cell phone has come in just a few short years. The fact that my phone has more computing power than NASA in 1969 makes me feel bad that I use it mainly to take pictures of my dogs and send “lol” to my friends.

As we talked about before, microblogging is an up and coming way of reporting. Live blogging, mobile videos, and mobile crowdsourcing are some examples that Briggs gives of the new age of reporting. Wearable technology would make it easy to report anywhere and anytime.

Wearable technology is something I’m not completely on board with just yet. While I do understand the avenues wearable technology will open for people, especially journalist, I agree with a lot of the points made in the “Don’t be a Glasshole” video.

In the first Youtube clip, the things that the man demonstrated with Google Glass were things that can be done on your phone. It makes me wonder why people feel the need to have it literally right in front of their eyes instead of in the palm of their hands. Also, his football jersey/blazer combo was not helping.

I think Google Glass has a lot of potential. As pointed out in the “7 quick observations about Glass”, there are a lot of kinks to work out. I also think that we as a society are not quite ready for wearable technology.

I think the biggest fear is that we are becoming a non-social society. We already can see it with people and their phones. People fear that Google Glass will only further this disconnect between one another.

Mobility in the technological sense has hit, what most of us would think, its peak. However, Google glass is pushing the limits on that with wearable technology. Google Glass may have it’s advantages- and from watching everything the guy in the first video could do while walking to the coffee station, it looked impressive. But, yes, I did want to slap him. (This guy is wearing an NFL jersey with a blazer and has tattoos on his knuckles.)

The second video got me thinking- is wearable technology going to make social interaction even worse? In person social interaction, I mean. Smart phones are already too easy to take out of your pocket and walk down the street with. If the Google Glass is as available as the smart phone in five years, what’s going to happen to society? You won’t even have to run into someone and say sorry to them. You will just walk by each other and completely be engulfed in what you’re doing.

Also, citizen journalism will explode. As Briggs wrote, smart phones are like “electronic swiss army knives”. If these are already out of our pockets and on our faces, we will never miss a beat. You could see this as a good thing, I guess. But I think it will cause more and more problems, especially with relationships. Because the average child gets their first phone when they’re roughly 11 or 12-years-old, relationships and drama would sky rocket with wearable technology, too.

Point-blank: Briggs has it right. The audience is going mobile, so journalism should, too. If Glass comes back and better-than-ever, we’re all going to have to get one. Some were critical of the iPhone, and look how that turned out.

As for the hedgehog-looking airbag personal space thing… how far away from other people can we get? There’s going to be no socialization in person.

Wearable technology is something I fell will come, from better versions of Google Glass to legitimate versions of the phone watches used in Star Trek. How these will be used in journalism is a huge question. Briggs mentioned that mobile devices are like a Swiss army knife. What we need to figure out is if wearable technology is another knife or a can opener.

The first video showed the tattooed man doing all sorts of things with Google Glass in the short walk to the creamery. Even though he could read the New York Times, send email, and check notifications, there was a section of the video I shivered when he crossed the street thinking a car would hit him. As we know, multitasking does not exist.

During the same video, he presented how easy it was to take a video and post it to Twitter. Like he said, the battery would drain fast on Google Glass. As presented in the second video, if the battery had a better life, how easy would it be to snap a quick pick in the bathroom? Not saying a journalist would do that, but they could if they wanted.

When it comes to Google Glass as a fashion statement, I hope the next installment of the glasses look better than what we had. The models looked like well dressed cyborgs ready to laser onto their target and erase them from existence.

Google Glass and the next version of them should aid in the news gathering cycle. Instead of lugging around a camera, tripod, recorder, etc. a reporter could throw on their glasses and get to business. It’s how they use the glasses that will make or break the story.

I think wearable technology is something we are going to see a lot more of in the future. On one hand I feel like it may make being a journalist a little easier as far as being that much more mobile but will also allow us to get content to our viewers even faster. In the Briggs chapter he talks about live blogging, just imagine how easy that could be with a fully functional google glass.

Briggs also addresses that with the internet now any journalist can run breaking news. Just think how much faster that could be with wearable technology. Back before the internet it was mainly up to the newspapers to run a special news edition but now with the internet and social media anyone can break the news. Just like the Chapel Hill shooting we looked at this past week in class.

The video you provide of the man walking to The Creamery gives me something to worry about however. I’m sure we’ve all been on the end of the phone when we have wanted Siri to type out a message on our iPhone’s and autocorrect kicks in, and I’m thankful that I proofread it before I hit send. I think the technology in wearables will have to get a lot better in order for it to be a trusted tool in the field of journalism. During that video I just kept thinking wow, he looks weird and what if it doesn’t type exactly what he said?

I still imagine that at some point in my career I will be using wearable technology.

Mobility is inevitable, why would anyone want to carry around three different things, such as camera, notebook, and laptop, when they could replace them with a smart phone. Mobility is all about making life easier, which in turn increases our productivity. Whether or not we use that productivity for good is our own personal choice, if you can walk around all day with your nose in your phone it’s going to happen, that’s not the technology’s fault, it’s on us.

The counter point is that technology allows us to compound our knowledge on a daily basis. Today I know more about Thorium nuclear potential than I did yesterday, and that’s more than anyone knew 100 years ago. Briggs is a perfect example of this; I bought the kindle version of the book. This not only allows me to jump directly to a specific chapter or section, but I can see highlights from other readers of this book and how many times it has been highlighted. All technology offers a learning experience for us.

Wearable technology will be prevalent in the next few years and this will increase mobility, but how we use it will define its worth.

As the amount of skills a journalist needs to possess, accessibility to the tools of their trade will continue to grow in importance. Mobility is key to this. Instead of breaking their backs carrying a laptop, camera, backup batteries, different lenses, etc…. journalists can now carry that in their pocket or potentially wear it on their bodies. Current smartphone technology allows us to capture a photo or video, edit it on location and publish in a matter of minutes. This accessibility makes live reporting of a story easier for anyone who is at the scene.
The reading from Briggs says, ‘Being able to quickly capture fleeting moments is what separates the professional photojournalist from the amateur photographer.” Wearable technology can help capture these moments quickly. Even though Google Glass had a rocky start, the potential it has is infinite. Being able to capture a photo or video just by tapping the side or speaking to it will shorten the amount of time needed to capture a photo. During a time of breaking news, a reporter may not be able to pull out and turn on their camera quickly enough to capture the image. With wearable technology it is on you and ready to go. Wearable technology also allows for multitasking. A reporter could be taking a picture on their camera while having their glass transcribe what they are saying. These features still need to be worked on but the fact that they made it into the first generation glass shows that technology developers are headed in the right direction.
Just as with most things, there will be bumps along the rode before wearable technology breaks into the mainstream market. However, when it does the multimedia journalists will need to learn quickly how to use and adapt to the technology.

Mark Briggs compares Google Glass and wearable technology to a Swiss army knife, but I think there is one major difference no one has seemed to care much about yet. Swiss army knives are used and useful in the tangible world, whereas there is no reason the man in the “A Day with Google Glass” video needs to be checking his email instead of looking at the nice day it seems to be as he is walking down the street. The idea of being readily available at any time of the day even when you are alone just because you have a cell phone is already an unattractive prospect to me. It is true that journalism must change and update itself with advancements in technology, but the idea of doing any of the things the man in the video was doing with Google Glass while walking somewhere seems entirely unnecessary to me and makes me want to unplug him and make him go watch some clouds or something.

On the other hand, I think Google Glass was an inevitable advancement. But it seems like it was only an advancement for the sake of advancement, even if it is an impressive one, and not for an extremely useful purpose. For now it seems journalists and consumers will be sticking to regular forms of technology, communication, and social media because, as ABC News says in its article by Joanna Stern “Google Glass: What You Can and Can’t Do With Google’s Wearable Computer,” “You can’t buy or afford them.”

The first thing that struck me as I read the mobility chapter in Briggs is the idea that the one-man show journalist with an iPhone is a wonderful thing for journalism. Briggs gave lots of great reasons and examples for why this would be, but I couldn’t help but notice that there was little mention of the benefit of in-depth coverage, a professional photographer and carefully shot video. For me, the most important part of this chapter came in the form of questions every journalist should as themselves before deciding to use a mobile method for coverage. I understand that the chapter was on the power of mobility, but it’s not the only way.

Mobile journalism in the form of new wearable technology is an entirely different ballgame. I’ve had the opportunity to use glass a number of times now and have found it to be an overhyped product with a short battery life and shaky video. Wearable technology will without a doubt revolutionize journalism in the same way the television did, but we’re not quite there yet, and placing all this time and effort into a technology that just isn’t ready for the field is not worth our time. Understanding the limits and strengths of wearables will be the key to successful adoption of these devices in journalism.

Today’s audience turns to the internet for their news. Therefore, journalists must adapt to the improved mobility culture. Mobility is advantageous. Rather than transporting with numerous amounts of equipment such as cameras, video and audio recorders, advanced mobile devices have made news reporting more convenient for journalists.

Briggs explained that it’s important for journalists to remember the standards of a news reporter. “Journalism should come first, the technology second.” It’s easy to get caught up in technology. Smartphones should be used as a tactic, not a standard.

When I first heard about of Google Glass, I thought the idea was too advanced and unnecessary. However, our parents probably felt the same when smartphones launch.

Brigg’s chapter on mobility opened my mind. Maybe, wearable technology influences the future of mobility. Mobility is about convenience and simplicity. Google glass is a excellent example. The wearable technology makes news coverage easier than it has ever been before. Journalists are able to capture and produce content more easily, and simply. Launching new products into today’s market is difficult. With more research and strategic planning, Google Glass can potentially succeed.

First off I want to talk about how Briggs talks about how the “world is going mobile, so had journalism.” I think this is interesting with the google glass. I think that yes the world is mobile and journalists need to adopt to that but I don’t think that means using the google glass. I think that just means we need to be doing out jobs on the go and I think right now we can.

Google Glass to me is just a problem. I think its much easier to just use my phone for everything especially because I already have everything I need right there. I have my phone, my news, anything I could need to be a journalist on the go. With Google Glass first off I think its a danger, he says that you don’t need to be looking up at it but when your getting use to it you are going to be walking and looking up or worst driving. I think this could lead to a lot of dangerous situations, also I think its just too much too soon I don’t want these what looks like heavy glasses on when I can just use a phone and keep it in my pocket. I think google glass is just a huge inconvenience right now.

I think the second video is what everyone thinks of Google Glass, how do you know someone isn’t watching you or recording you. I think right now people just aren’t ready for it and it needs a lot of improvements which was talked about. I do think in the future something like this could work but as of now I think a mobile phone is all a journalist needs on the go in this mobile world.

It seems these days that whenever we think we have seen the limit of something, someone figures out how to push that limit and come up with something new that no one ever thought would happen. I believe that this is the case with mobility, because with an iPhone, which basically has everything you need in it, you would think we have reached the limit of mobility, but I think someone out there is working on a way to condense it even further and make it even more appealing. The google glass was a nice attempt, but it clearly had its flaws and wasn’t the most appealing piece of technology.

I like how Briggs talked about how technology will affect citizen journalism. With technology making it easier to capture anything that happens in front of us and put it on social media, everyone is starting to have a responsibility as a citizen journalist to be aware of what they post on the internet. We are not too far off from a world where something major happens and you see it first on people’s video feeds on the internet that they are capturing from the view point of their own eyes. That is already started to happen, but it will become more common as the technology improves.

When it comes to wearable technology I have seen things that make me think about how this is going to change the way we live in the near future and other things that make me wonder when the technology is going to be available, so things like Google Glass when released will actually be popular.

The first video does a good job pointing out the benefits of what Google Glass can do but overall it just seems really awkward. The idea of what it could do is cool but when it comes down to it its not “cool enough” for people to go out of their way to buy it and wear it. On the other hand I have seen other concepts for wearable technology that look like they will blow Google glass out of the water when they are available. Windows Holo Lens is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, which should be available in the next few years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEtLqtunD6g
Seeing things like this makes me see how wearable technology can certainly influence the future of mobility.

In the chapter Briggs went over some points about mobile journalism. An interesting part of the chapter was where Briggs listed all the journalistic apps that are available. As Briggs explains- as mobile phones become indispensable tools for journalists, many have found apps to assist them in their work. It is useful now that so many of these apps are there for journalists to use but in the past these types of things were not even thought about and it is weird to think about how different the industry was from a technological standpoint not too long ago.

Wearable technology is obviously something that is here to stay, but I think the companies developing it need to go about it in a different way than they did with Google’s Glass. Even though Google Glass was an exciting new feel to wearable technology, I think the main reason it didn’t work out was that it just freaked people out. I did an anonymous research study dealing with Google Glass, and I had to wear it while discussing something completely different with another student that had no idea why I was wearing it. That was the purpose, to see how she reacted to it, and I could tell that she felt very awkward, and thought that I looked very weird. I think once we can get passed that awkward feeling with wearable technology, then we will have much more success.

We’ve already gone such a long way technology, such as blue tooth, go pro cameras, and of course, the smartphone. These devices have done so much good for the field of journalism. I liked how Briggs mentioned how never again will we see an entire news crew have to go out with a bunch of equipment just to catch a live shot of something. Now all a reporter has to do is simply stick their smartphone in their pocket.

I really like the idea that with the increased amount of mobile technology, we are seeing an increased amount of citizen journalists. When something major happens, we are getting closer and closer to the day where we will always see it on people’s Twitter feeds or Facebook news feeds before we even see it on the news. That’s crazy to me. When I was really little, I can remember when newspapers were the predominant way to get news, even over watching it on the television. And then getting it on news websites such as MSN became popular, and now social media is starting to even pull ahead of that? That’s crazy.

Google Glass and Iwatch are not could not replace Laptops and smartphones at this time. Journalists need to type, edit and publish their stories. Wearable technology is not as affective as laptops to do this job. However, I think that wearable technology will benefit the paparazzi and undercover journalists more than others. Google glass gives them the opportunity to film people without their knowledge, but many would be suspicious of a person wearing it.

Briggs talked about how the advance in mobile technology makes it easier to cover stories. I agree with him that smartphones and tablets made it easier to go anywhere and report, but this is not the case with Google Glass and other wearable devices. I have never tries Google Glass but I think that it would be hard to use it for typing and editing.

I do not think that wearable technology will be a big thing any time soon. Google Glass had the biggest advertising campaign of all wearable technology and it failed. It is either that people are not ready for this technology yet, or wearable technology is not a smart idea at all. Personally, I think that it is a little strange to wear Google Glasses while talking to other people, but I am sure this was the case when Smart Phones first came out.

Until Glass or any other wearable technology has the same capability as the equipment currently in use, Glass won’t replace it. When I say “Glass,” I really mean any wearable technology available now or in the future. But it’s incredible just how damn close we are to replace things like the over-the-shoulder camera and stick mic to do an interview. Instead of a reporter needing a camera man, the interview becomes a truly one-on-one conversation with wearable technology.

Briggs has questions to check if you should or should not go mobile. Will the audience benefit? Will it be better if done on location? Etc. And honestly, what situation will the answers be no? We as journalists try to go mobile all the time. The Weather Channel will always be out in the storm to catch that rare “thundersnow” and jump around like a moron. HLN will do “satellite” interviews where both sides of the conversation are in the same parking lot.

Maybe that’s where truly mobile, or wearable technology falls short. It gives the journalist a lack of angles to shoot from. There is an inability to use smoke and mirrors. There is only a naked first-person perspective to show what is really happening. I think that’s a good thing. But the industry most likely disagrees.

Wearable technology is the future and it only adds to what we can do when it comes to being mobile. While things such as Google glass didn’t go over well, I believe it’s only a matter of time before it catches on and it is here to say.

We already see just how effective our mobile phones are in the journalism world. From the countless apps that Briggs talked about that help journalist, to being able to break news from our phones by tweeting or taking a picture/video. Obviously it’s changed the game.

Wearable technology has already influenced the further of mobility and as time goes on, there’s no doubt it will continue to be developed and probably be a commodity for journalist just like the mobile phone.

Briggs this week was all about journalism-on-the-go, which is really where our world is headed. In our scavenger hunt this week, we asked students how they got their news and I know quite a few mentioned social media. And, in today’s world, I really do think every journalist should have the tools Briggs’ mentioned to gear up with.

As for Google Glass, I honestly don’t know what to think. I want to slap Olanoff, but I don’t know whether that’s because of what he is saying or because I just find him super annoying. I don’t think I really enjoy the idea of wearable technology though. However, I do agree in cases like body cameras; otherwise, I kinda agree with the naysayers.